You are in no place to criticize expensive weddings. You wear a diamond the size of a kiwi, the caterer served lobster profiteroles, a bagpiper led everyone in a procession from the church to the catering hall, and your whitened teeth looked as unnatural as Eva Longoria’s.

Though personal finances and not taxpayer dollars paid for our wedding, her words exhumed the Dr. Faust-style angel-devil debate between Danielle the Priest and Danielle the Bride that dominated my engagement. Observe:

Danielle the Bride: It was my mother’s, and my parents didn’t know about diamond industry ethics 40 years ago.

Priest: You should still sell it and give the money to a struggling nonprofit.

Bride: I’m not selling a family heirloom. Besides, we offered a tithe of the wedding cost to charity instead of giving favors.

Priest: Two words for you: Lobster profiteroles.

Bride: They were an included hors d’oeuvres.

Priest: Ordering pizza in the backyard would have been cheaper than a catered reception with lobster profiteroles.

Bride: I tell you — we didn’t pay any extra for the lobster profiteroles.

Priest: It still would have been cheaper.

Bride (growing flustered): My dress was inexpensive, and we had a DJ, not a band.

But the truth is that however much Danielle the Bride tries to justify the bagpiper (a tribute to Scotland, where we met), the whitened teeth (free gift from the dentist), or the lobster profiteroles, my wedding was not cheap (though Danielle the Bride points out that it fell within the average price range of a Northeastern nuptial affair).

So is it acceptable for a priest — or any Christian, for that matter — to spend lavishly on a wedding while much of the world lives in poverty, and while Jesus harkens that, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor?”

Well, there are a couple of ways to respond.

One is to say: The bridal bliss-seekers have no choice when the word “wedding” puts dollars signs in the eyes of professionals ranging from bands to bakers.

In Libya, nuptials involve upwards of 3,000 guests needing meals for several days. And with people taking out loans for trousseaus and multi-day feasts in India, one minister of parliament, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, tried to create government restrictions on weddings, saying they are “a vulgar display of wealth” in a country riddled with poverty.

Still, billionaire Lakshmi Mittal spent more than $55 million for his daughter’s knot tying. The luxury items: 1,000 silver-boxed invitations, flights for guests from India to France, and rental of the opulent French palace Versailles.

Though the definition of extravagance varies by culture — in Iowa, it may mean hiring a mobile grill to prepare pulled pork, and in India we may see silver-boxed invites — many humans feel that matrimony is a time to splurge.

So if a Christian really wants to think about wedding ethics, perhaps it’s best to return to the good ol’ WWJT: What would Jesus think?

Well, Jesus might note that even 2,000 years ago, weddings were elaborate.

Consider the nuptial feast at Cana, where Jesus’ miracle-water-turned-expensive-wine gift would have been seen as a pinnacle of indulgence. To serve high quality alcohol after guests were already drunk — what a luxury!

Interestingly, we don’t see Jesus taking the water-wine to a liquor store, selling it off and giving the profits to the poor. Jesus is perfectly happy to waste resources on a good party.

So is Jesus not following his own advice? “If you wish to be perfect, sell everything and give the money to the poor … but first, let me offer this costly and consumable wedding gift,” we can hear him say.

Though I can’t put words in Jesus’ mouth, perhaps the reason he allows for indulgent weddings is, ironically, because there is so much spiritual and physical poverty in the world.

It’s hard to live here on Earth, knowing how people around us suffer, knowing how we suffer. So when something worth celebrating comes along — like two people willing to love each other through hardships they can’t even imagine — splurging a bit is OK.

Love, Jesus seems to say, might be worth some extravagance.

Jesus also justifies extravagance in the service of others. So when a woman from Bethany pours pricy oil on Jesus’ head, he sees her gift in terms of abundant kindness, not in terms of lost money for the poor.

Translating this story to our time, we might say that wedding costs are excusable when they are in the spirit of hospitality to one’s neighbor.

So does that mean profligate spending at weddings is always justified? No, it doesn’t.

Danielle the Priest sermonizes that we have to be mindful of how our actions affect not just our immediate neighbors but also our global ones. (Danielle the Bride chimes in that more and more people are buying recyclable invitations, substituting donations for favors, and creating charity registries.)

Still, the most compelling reason to argue against expensive weddings is that while many things needed for a memorable wedding cost money, the most important ones — a kiss at the altar, a mother’s tear as she sees her son make a lifelong commitment — are free.

Nonetheless, on a special occasion, Jesus might be down with a lobster profiterole.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio.

soundoff(402 Responses)

Maurita Nybo

Distilled beverages bottled with added sugar and added flavorings, such as Grand Marnier, Frangelico, and American schnapps, are liqueurs. In common usage, the distinction between spirits and liqueurs is widely unknown or ignored; consequently, all alcoholic beverages other than beer and wine are generally referred to as spirits...`..^

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June 2, 2013 at 12:58 am |

tryecrot

Yes there should realize the opportunity to RSS commentary, quite simply, CMS is another on the blog.

August 27, 2011 at 7:25 am |

Eunice

When I read this I kept thinking of the The Wedding-Christ's return. ~Revelation 21: 1-3 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Sometimes people do spend a fortune on weddings. It is a great memory; however, we should consider the things that last. Work on building the home (including financial obligations for the future family). Christians who believe in the truth and live it out, know that He paid His life for a grand and glorious Wedding. He is returning for His bride, the church. The world emphasizes a lot on the temporary and materialistic things that will fade away. But Christ is more concerned for our hearts and to live for the things that are eternal.

May 17, 2011 at 9:51 am |

Aule

About the only reason I know that women like to put on lavish weddings, is to get the man at least two years into debt so as to make it less likely that he will leave her if he changes his mind. I had this happen to me with my ex wife, because I wanted to spend no more than 500 on the wedding and just have immediate family only, and she wanted to spend 10,000 and have several hundred guests: "We're going to be together for the rest of our lives, so we're going to pay it off together." Yeah, right.

May 12, 2011 at 3:23 am |

Coriolana

I'm a cradle Episcopalian and I find the PC blather you quote really revolting. If folks want to spend their money on weddings, why denigrate them with pompous crap? Would you rather they spend on other celebrations, like funerals? The church gets it's slice of the $ pie. Stop the PC preaching-it's annoying, it talks down to people from some 'lofty' place inhabited only by those who talk a good game and never put their $ where their mouths are.

May 7, 2011 at 12:05 pm |

Kathleen

The money that people spend on weddings is not being thrown into the sea and destroyed. I am a bagpipe player, and have played for money at many, many weddings. If she paid a piper to play at her wedding, that piper then spent the money on rent, or food, or tuition, or any of the stuff that other people spend their wages on. The money for the caterers and the florists was spent likewise. It is not a sin to pay people for providing an honest service, whether that service is fixing your kitchen sink or preparing elaborate wedding cakes.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.